Pedernales Electric Coop now has 82 automatic external defibrillator units in service, thanks to its supplier, American Med Supply. Pedernales Electric Coop will be training more than 800 employees in CPR and defibrillator use.

Automatic external defibrillators [AEDs] can greatly reduce the incidence of death from sudden cardiac arrest, also known as SCD. SCD is in fact the most common cause of death in the United States today.

More than 300,000 deaths occur from sudden heart arrest every year. That’s a larger number of people than those who die from AIDS, traffic accidents, breast or prostate cancer, or house fires combined. For every minute that goes by after a cardiac arrest, the victim’s survival decreases by 7 to 10% unless treatment happens. With automatic external defibrillators in reach, many more lives can be saved.

C Allyn Cutts, Vice President of American Med Supply said, “It’s our mission to make sure anyone in America is within four minutes of a defibrillator. They save lives. It’s just that simple.”

Pedernales Electric Coop (http://www.pec.coop) has been around since 1938. Located in Texas, it’s the largest electric cooperative in the US, with nine districts, and providing electricity to about 227,000 members statewide.

American Med Supply has offices in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida and is one of the nation’s leading providers of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), AED Batteries, AED Pads and AED Cabinets. American Med Supply supplies many of the largest cities and municipalities, gas & electric companies, police forces, government branches, the State Department, US Embassies, Fortune 1000, small businesses, as well as hundreds of YMCA’s, and school districts across the nation with their emergency medical equipment.

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